Love reins in charmed marriage

THERE'S a little secret behind Gordon and Rita Reece's long and happy marriage - a horseshoe. The lucky charm was given to them five years after they married in 1958 and now they have just celebrated their golden wedding anniversary.

THERE'S a little secret behind Gordon and Rita Reece's long and happy marriage - a horseshoe.

The lucky charm was given to them five years after they married in 1958 and now they have just celebrated their golden wedding anniversary.

Previously, the horseshoe had been given to Rita's grandparents Walter and Florence Burrows on their wedding day and their golden anniversary was reported by the Manchester Evening News in March 1963.

Gordon and Rita inherited the horseshoe after the deaths of Florence and Walter, who had been a farrier for the M.E.N for 30 years, looking after the horses that pulled the delivery carts.

Rita, 68, from Poynton, Cheshire, said: "My grandfather always kept horseshoes and it was just passed on to us.

"We have been very lucky with our marriage, health and family and would like to think it has something to do with it.

"We also love each other, laugh and cry together, we're best friends and we are joined at the hip."

Gordon, 75, said: "We share a genuine, mutual love and she is very special.

"The horseshoe may have given us a bit of luck, but we've worked at it."

Eldest son Graham Lucas, 44, an accountant from Swinton, described his parents as an inspiration.

Gordon and Rita, who have four children and six grandchildren, have put their relationship to the ultimate test during their working lives. They worked side by side for 27 years, running two newsagents in Swinton.

After retiring they went to North Wales and worked in a shop there.

Gordon and Rita met when she was 15, at a dance club in Manchester. He had just finished National Service and she had just left school.

After Gordon proposed and the couple got engaged but the path to true love did not get off to the smoothest of starts. Following a row when they missed a bus on Wilmslow Road, Manchester, Rita took off the engagement ring and put it on a car bonnet. Gordon feared the worst. But they quickly kissed and made up and tied the knot on June 7, 1958.

They lived with Gordon's father in Salford before buying a three-bedroom, semi-detached in Cheadle Hulme for £1,900.